The startup formerly known as Story Protocol raised $140 million to secure internet rights and is now building an audit layer for data consent, licensing, and provenance for tech firms.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Jun 25, 2026, 5:06 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on The startup has undergone a rebranding and is now known as the DATA Foundation, focusing on the growing challenges related to AI copyright issues. (DATA Foundation/Media)SummaryShow- Story Protocol has changed its name to DATA Foundation and is moving away from a general intellectual property focus to developing blockchain infrastructure for verifying AI training data.
- The newly established DATA Network and its Trace platform aim to provide cryptographic receipts that document the provenance, licensing, consent terms, and payment history of datasets while keeping the underlying data secure.
- DATA Foundation is collaborating with Kled AI’s human data marketplace, which has registered 1.1 billion user-contributed records, and is creating fraud-detection tools to ensure that licensed data is authentic, original, and legally compliant.
The Palo Alto-based blockchain startup Story Protocol is rebranding itself as DATA Foundation, shifting its focus entirely to AI training infrastructure. Avi Patel, the founder of Kled, is joining as the chief data officer, as he shared with CoinDesk in an email interview on Thursday.
The DATA Foundation will manage the DATA Network, a blockchain registry aimed at verifying the origins, licensing, and consent history of datasets utilized for training artificial intelligence models. This shift takes the firm from a broader intellectual property focus to a more specialized approach targeting the AI data sector, according to Patel.
This transition comes amid a wave of copyright lawsuits faced by AI developers and major technology companies concerning the data used to train their models, alongside increasing demands to demonstrate that datasets were gathered with appropriate consent. The DATA Foundation believes that blockchain can deliver a clear record of ownership, licensing, and provenance for AI training data.
The rebranding follows the $140 million in total venture funding led by Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto, which Patel confirmed, but he declined to comment on a valuation reported by Gate as $2.4 billion.
In February, the protocol gained attention due to a delay in token unlocks. Co-founder Sy Lee defended the decision, stating that the blockchain needed additional time to develop its usage.
Patel mentioned that the launch will feature a direct integration with Kled AI, an opt-in human data marketplace. The integration will register 1.1 billion user-contributed records within the new network. In conjunction with the corporate transition, Andrea Muttoni has been appointed as CEO of the DATA Foundation.
Increasing Legal Scrutiny
According to Patel, AI companies are encountering heightened legal scrutiny and data exhaustion from scraping the public internet. The DATA Foundation intends to tackle this issue by launching Trace, a public audit and search platform that generates immutable cryptographic receipts for each data contribution. These receipts are intended to assist AI developers in affirming the provenance, licensing, and consent history of datasets prior to their utilization.
"Trace publishes the audit record, not the data," Patel explained to CoinDesk. "What is public is the receipt: content hash, consent terms, licensing, payment proof, and timestamps. There’s nothing to scrape on Trace because the asset itself is not stored there."
Patel added that the original data remains within the marketplace and requires a licensed transaction for access.
The network also features Poseidon, an AI data processing initiative that cleans and scores human data. Poseidon operates a contributor app called Numo, which compensates users with stablecoins in real-time for submitting authenticated data.
To finance these payouts, Patel indicated that compensation is directly linked to completed transactions instead of being advanced against future sales. Kled also provides fiat payout options alongside the stablecoin alternative, allowing contributor payments to be independent of any single buyer's timing.
Patel stated that his team is concentrating on developing a forthcoming fraud-detection protocol to ensure that the data is genuine, human, and original rather than being pirated or generated by AI.
"Labs won’t license data they can’t verify," he noted. "Addressing that is the key challenge, and it’s where we are directing our resources."
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CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High
CEX Volumes Drop to Lowest Since September 2024 as RWA Perps Hit Record High
In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.
By CoinDesk ResearchJun 15, 2026In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.
Why it matters:
In May, combined exchange volumes fell 3.45% to $4.41T; the lowest since September 2024. RWA perpetual futures volumes rose 10.4% against the trend, hitting a new all-time high.
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